Sardesai cremated in presence of ex-Test colleagues

MUMBAI: The mortal remains of former Test cricketer Dilip Sardesai, who died on Monday due to multiple organ failure, were cremated on Tuesday with the last rites performed by his noted TV journalist son Rajdeep.

Several past cricketers, including former Test captain Ajit Wadekar, were present at the Chandanwadi electric crematorium in South Mumbai to pay their last respect to the departed former Mumbai and India middle order mainstay.

The 67-year-old Sardesai, the only cricketer born in Goa to have represented the country, died last night at the Bombay Hospital where he had got admitted on June 19 with chest infection.

Among the ex-Test cricketers who attended the cremation were his former colleagues Bapu Nadkarni, Indrajit Sinh, Ajit Pai, Chandu Patankar, Sandeep Patil, Ghulam Parkar, Suru Nayak, Kenia Jayantilal and Umesh Kulkarni.

Former Mumbai cricketers Milind Rege and Ravi Thakkar were also present along with Mumbai Cricket Association officials and Cricket Board's CAO Ratnakar Shetty.

Former BCCI chiefs Raj Singh Dungarpur and Purshottam Rungta, along with Shiv Sena Executive President Udhav Thackeray, former Mumbai police chiefs Julio Rebeiro and Ronnie Mendonca, and current special IG Javed Ahmed, also attended the final rites.